CALGARY, March 12, 2009 -- Ontario's Glenn Howard dodged a bullet, Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton kept his team in the playoff hunt and BC's Sean Geall was dealt a serious setback here on the Thursday morning draw at the 2009 Tim Hortons Brier.

Nova Scotia's Mark Dacey went toe-to-toe with Howard all game but Howard simply wore him down and finally scored the knockout punch in the ninth end with a steal of three. Howard then ran Dacey out of rocks in the tenth end to secure a 9-6 victory and improve to 9-1.

The win sets up a battle for first place here Thursday evening on the final round-robin draw when Howard takes on Alberta's Kevin Martin, who is a perfect 9-0 heading into today.

Although long anticipated, the game will be lacking, however, much drama. Both Howard and Martin have now clinched berths in the 1 vs 2 game and the winner of tonight's game will earn nothing more than hammer in tomorrow night's playoff clash. "Hammer is important," Howard said afterward, "but other than that, (tonight's game) is meaningless."

Manitoba, meanwhile, kept their playoff chances alive with an 8-3 win over Newfoundland's Brad Gushue. The win dropped Gushue's record to 7-3 and improved Manitoba's record to 6-4. While there is a path that would allow Stoughton to lose his final round-robin game this afternoon against Saskatchewan and still earn a playoff tiebreaker game with a 6-5 record, the two-time Brier champion was hearing none of that kind of talk after the Newfoundland victory.

"It was a must-win and we got it. One more must-win and we get to play tomorrow," Stoughton said.

BC's Sean Geall, meanwhile, must now rely only on that 6-5 scenario. Geall is now 5-5 after an 11-3 thrashing at the hands of NWT/Yukon's Jamie Koe.

In the only other game Thursday morning, Northern Ontario's Mike Jakubo defeated PEI's Rod MacDonald 8-6.

The Brier resumes at 1 p.m. MT when Quebec plays PEI, Saskatchewan plays Manitoba, New Brunswick plays NWT/Yukon and Alberta plays Nova Scotia. TSN will carry the draw live.